Achievement for All National evaluation (Research report DFE-RR123) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The Achievement for All (AfA) pilot involved ten local authorities (LAs) selected by the Department for Children Families and Schools (now the DfE). Each LA selected schools to participate and in total there were 454 schools. The main aim of the national evaluation project was to examine the impact of AfA on a variety of outcomes for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). It also aimed to find out what processes and practices in schools were most effective in improving these outcomes. Research design incorporated quantitative and qualitative components. The quantitative component of the evaluation consisted of teacher surveys, parent surveys, attendance and attainment data and school level surveys/data. The qualitative component included interviews with local and regional AfA lead professionals, longitudinal case studies of 20 AfA school, and ad hoc data.
The aims of this national evaluation project are to examine the impact of Achievement for All (AfA) on a variety of outcomes for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and to find out what processes and practices in schools are most effective in improving these outcomes. The research design comprises (a) a quantitative strand involving longitudinal assessment of outcomes for over 10,000 pupils with SEND (including a comparison group of pupils attending schools that are not involved in AfA) through teacher surveys, parent surveys and academic attainment data, and (b) a qualitative strand involving interviews with key strategic figures, longitudinal case studies of 20 AfA schools, ‘mini-case studies’ of 100 pupils/families, and ad-hoc data collection at a range of events relating to AfA. The findings presented in this report are derived from baseline surveys and an initial case study school visits. They therefore only represent an early ‘snapshot’ and should be interpreted in this context. The baseline survey of pupil outcomes yielded data on around 10,000 pupils in the teacher survey and over 2,000 pupils in the parent survey – making this the largest study of its kind to be conducted in England. Initial analysis suggests that this monitoring sample is representative of national trends among pupils with SEND. Moderate levels of agreement were found between teacher and parent surveys – which emphasises the need for further sharing of information between home and school.
Achievement for All: Addendum Report
2021
This addendum report should be read in conjunction to the main report of this project, Achievement for All: Evaluation Report (Humphrey et al., 2020). The main report presented the findings relating to the first cohort of 6,338 pupils who were in Year 5 at the start of the 2016/2017 academic year. A randomised controlled trial was used to compare outcomes in reading, maths, resilience-related outcomes, and attendance among pupils in 66 schools who received Achievement for All (AfA) with those who attended 68 schools who continued with business as usual. The main report also presents the implementation and process evaluation that was undertaken during the trial. In brief, for the Year 5 cohort, we found that AfA led to a two-month reduction in reading progress at both the wholegroup and subgroup levels-AfA target children and those eligible for free school meals ('FSM children'). ('AfA target children' are defined as those identified as 'vulnerable to underachievement'.) All children and FSM children in the Achievement for All schools made two months less progress in maths, on average, compared to equivalent children in schools that did not receive the programme, while AfA target children made three months less progress in maths, on average, compared to target children in control schools. However, children in AfA schools were more likely to report that there was an adult in their school who cared about them and supported them. This addendum report focuses on the above-noted outcomes for 6,586 pupils who were in Year 4 at the start of the 2016/2017 academic year. This second cohort of pupils were exposed to AfA for the full six terms (two school years) recommended by the developer; this contrasts with the five terms of intervention exposure experienced by the first cohort in the main report. In both the main and addendum report, subgroup moderator analysis was undertaken for the vulnerable 'AfA target' group of pupils identified by the schools involved in the project in addition to the standard subgroup analysis pertaining to FSM children. The main report can be accessed here. The project The intervention in brief Achievement for All is a whole-school development programme that was developed from a national pilot funded by the Department for Education just over ten years ago. It aims to improve pupil academic outcomes such as reading and mathematics as well as resilience-related outcomes such as goals and aspirations and attendance. Schools are supported by a coach from the charity AfA 3As (Aspiration, Access, and Achievement) who works with them to develop leadership and governance, teaching and learning, parent and carer engagement, and wider outcomes and opportunities. The intervention is very flexible and driven by a needs analysis of the school that leads to an action plan to be implemented over a period of two years. Part of the needs analysis involves identifying a target group of pupils with an aim to address the academic achievement gap between the lowest 20% of children and their peers. Impacts measured by the addendum In this addendum report we consider the second cohort of pupils who were in Year 4 at the start of the 2016/2017 academic year and received the full two-year intervention (six terms). The findings are reported for reading-the primary outcome-and for secondary outcomes relating to maths, 'resilience' (self-esteem, goals and aspirations, family connection, and school connection), and attendance. Attainment and attendance data was obtained from the National
2013
Students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) are at a greatly increased risk of experiencing poor psychosocial outcomes. Developing effective interventions that address the cause of these outcomes has therefore become a major policy priority in recent years. We report on a national evaluation of the Achievement for All (AfA) programme that was designed to improve outcomes for students with SEND through: (1) academic assessment, tracking and intervention, (2) structured conversations with parents, and (3) developing provision to improve wider outcomes (e.g. positive relationships). Using a quasi-experimental, pre-test–post-test control group design, we assessed the impact of AfA on teacher ratings of the behaviour problems, positive relationships and bullying of students with SEND over an 18-month period. Participants were 4758 students with SEND drawn from 323 schools across England. Our main impact analysis demonstrated that AfA had a significant impact on all three response variables when compared to usual practice. Hierarchical linear modelling of data from the intervention group highlighted a range of school-level contextual factors and implementation activities and student-level individual differences that moderated the impact of AfA on our study outcomes. The implications of our findings are discussed, and study strengths and limitations are noted.